KR20140005356A - Using pressure differences with a touch-sensitive display screen - Google Patents

Abstract

A user interface is disclosed that responds to differences in pressure detected by the touch sensitive screen 102. The user selects one type of user interface action by “weak” touching the screen 102 (310) and selects another type of action (312) by applying greater pressure. Embodiments may respond 504 to single touches, gesture touches extending across the surface of the touch sensitive screen, and to touches that change the pressure exerted by the user during the course of the touch. Some embodiments respond 506 to how quickly the pressure applied by the user changes. In some embodiments, the position and pressure of the user's input is compared with the stored gesture profile (604). An action is taken 606 only if the input matches "close enough" with the stored gesture profile. In some embodiments, a notification is sent 312c to the user when the pressure exceeds a threshold between a weak press and a strong press.

Description

USING PRESSURE DIFFERENCES WITH A TOUCH-SENSITIVE DISPLAY SCREEN}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention generally relates to personal electronic devices, and more particularly to a user interface for a touch sensitive display screen.

Touch sensitive display screens are a known component of many personal electronic devices. By recognizing and responding to a user's touch (typically using a finger or stylus), these screens not only collect user input, but also provide the output of the device in a very attractive, integrated manner for many applications.

Early popular touch-sensitive display screens could reliably recognize only one touch position at a time. In the presence of multiple simultaneous touches, such display screens will be confusing and unpredictable. However, at present, many devices include screens that can reliably track several simultaneous touches and measure the overall pressure exerted by the user.

One of the attractive aspects of touch sensitive display screens is that they can replace both a keyboard and pointing device (eg, a mouse or trackball) found in at least some examples on more traditional personal computers. This makes the screens particularly useful for very small devices, such as smartphones that are too small to fit 10 finger typing even if a keyboard is present.

Naturally, the development of user interface forms for touch sensitive screens has followed the uses pioneered by fixed keyboards and mice. People transition very easily from controlling the cursor on the display screen using a mouse to simply touching the screen and dragging the cursor to where it is needed.

Summary of the Invention

The above and other circumstances are addressed by the present invention, which can be understood by reference to the specification, drawings and claims. In accordance with aspects of the present invention, the ability of some modern touch sensitive screens to respond to pressure differences is used to enhance the user interface of the device. The user selects one type of user interface action by "weak" touching the screen and selects another type of action by applying greater pressure. For example, a weak touch can be interpreted as a conventional "single click" from a mouse button, while a stronger touch can act as a "double click." In another example, within a drawing application, a user draws with a weak touch and deletes with a stronger touch.

Some touch screens reliably report a range of user pressures. Embodiments of the present invention can exploit this range by allowing a user to select three or more individual actions, depending on exactly how hard the user presses the screen. For example, if a user fast forwards through a media presentation, the speed of the fast forward may change directly depending on the amount of pressure applied.

Aspects of the present invention are not limited to single touch forms. Instead, embodiments may respond to single touches, gesture touches extending across the surface of the touch sensitive screen, and to touches that change the pressure exerted by the user during the course of the touch. Some embodiments respond to how quickly the pressure applied by the user changes.

In some embodiments, the position and pressure of the user's input is compared with the stored gesture profile. An action is taken only if the input matches "close enough" with the stored gesture profile. For example, a user signs his name, which is then compared with the signature profile stored. The user is provided access to the control information if the signature matches.

In some embodiments, a notification is sent to the user when the pressure exceeds a threshold between weak and strong presses. For example, an icon may be displayed on the screen when the pressure is high. (This is similar to the "CAPS LOCK" icon that is sometimes displayed in connection with a conventional keyboard.) Sound may be played or haptic feedback ("buzz" felt by the user) may be provided.

Various touch sensitive screens implement various techniques, and therefore they differ in the way they measure and report different pressures. Aspects of the invention operate with any pressure sensitive screen.

While the appended claims specifically illustrate features of the present invention, the invention can be best understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, together with their objects and advantages. In the drawings:
1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary personal electronic device that may be used with the present invention.
2A and 2B are stylized representations of a touch sensitive screen in response to different pressures.
3A and 3B together form a flow chart of a first exemplary user interface using pressure reporting by a touch sensitive screen.
4A and 4B together form a flowchart of a particular embodiment of the user interface method of FIGS. 3A and 3B.
5 is a flowchart of an example user interface responsive to a rate of change of touch pressure.
6 is a flowchart of an exemplary user interface for comparing a user's touch input with a stored gesture profile using the teachings of the present invention.

Referring to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals designate like elements, the invention is shown to be implemented in a suitable environment. The following description is based on the embodiments of the present invention and should not be construed as limiting the invention in connection with alternative embodiments not expressly described herein.

1 illustrates an exemplary personal electronic device 100 (eg, a cellular phone, personal digital assistant, or personal computer) incorporating one embodiment of the present invention. 1 shows the device 100 as a cellular phone providing its home screen 102 to its user. Typically, home screen 102 is used for the highest fidelity interaction with a user. For example, main screen 102 is used to display video or still images, is part of the user interface for changing configuration settings, and is used to view call logs and contact lists. To support these interactions, the main screen 102 has a high resolution and is large enough to be properly accommodated within the device 100. In some situations, it may be useful for a user to have access to a screen that is much larger than the main screen 102. For such situations, a larger external display can be connected to and controlled by the electronic device 100 (eg, via a docking station). The device 100 may have a second and possibly third screen for providing status messages. These screens are generally smaller than the main screen 102. These can be safely ignored in the remainder of this description.

Screen 102 is a touch sensitive screen. When the user of the device presses the screen 102 at one point or at multiple points, the screen 102 reports the positions of the touches. The pressure associated with the touch is also reported. In some devices, the screen 102 itself includes pressure sensors and can measure the pressure applied at each point. In other devices, separate pressure sensors (not shown) report the total amount of pressure applied locally to the pressure measurements or screen 102. To cover both of these cases without using excessive language, the present description uses the shorthand phrase "screen 102 reports pressure" regardless of which components of device 100 actually measure and report pressure. I use it.

Note that the present invention also applies to touch sensitive screens that are not touch sensitive display screens, such as touch pads that do not have a display function. These are becoming less common today, and the description focuses on examples which are touch sensitive display screens.

Today, various techniques are used to implement the touch sensitive screens 102. The present invention is intended to work with all existing and any future touch sensing technologies to be developed.

A typical user interface of personal electronic device 100 includes a keypad and other user input devices in addition to touch sensitive screen 102. The keypad may be a physical or virtual keypad, which includes virtual keys displayed on the touch sensitive screen 102. Some devices 100 include an audio output and a haptic device to notify a user of the device.

1 illustrates some of the more important internal components of the personal electronic device 100. The network interface 104 sends and receives media presentations, related information, and download requests. The processor 106 controls the operations of the apparatus 100 and in particular supports aspects of the present invention as shown in Figures 3-6 described below. Processor 106 uses memory 108 in its operations. Particular uses of these components by specific devices are appropriately described below.

2A shows how the touch sensitive screen 102 responds to multiple touches of moderate pressure. The black areas 200a, 202a, 204a represent places where the user has pressed sufficiently strong enough to register on the screen 102. (These areas 200a, 202a, 204a need not be displayed in any way to the user of the screen 102.) The original area 200a may be the result of a stylus tip or a user's finger tip. Region 202a is thinner and longer, which is probably the result of tilting the stylus or finger down at an angle. 204a is a trace extending over time. This may be interpreted as a “drag” motion or gesture, depending on the software responsive to the output of the screen 102.

In some embodiments, screen 102 reports the actual spatial range of each of touches 200a, 202a, 204a. In these embodiments, FIG. 2A is a literal representation of what is reported by screen 102. In other embodiments, screen 102 does not report the actual area of the touch, but rather the application pressure. For example, touch 200a may be reported as a single point on screen 102 associated with a certain amount of pressure. In these embodiments, FIG. 2A should be considered as an implicit representation rather than a literal representation of what the screen 102 reports.

In FIG. 2B, the touches of FIG. 2A are repeated only at higher pressures. The one touch 200a has been extended to the original area 200b by the greater pressure. When the pressure is greater, the elongated touch 202b not only has a larger area but also changes shape, which is slightly less elongated by the greater pressure. Trace 204b has the same starting and ending points as trace 204a, but the width of trace 204b is much larger due to the greater pressure. In screen embodiments that do not actually report the area of the touch, trace 204b is reported to have the same location (via time) as trace 204a but with larger associated pressure values.

3A and 3B illustrate a first exemplary method for utilizing pressure information provided within a user interface by a touch sensitive screen 102. In step 300 of FIG. 3A, the processor 106 of the personal electronic device 100 receives information about a touch on the screen 102. While this description focuses on pressure information associated with touch, of course, as is traditional, information about touch generally includes at least one touch location (step 302). In the case of a gesture touch, such as trace 204a of FIG. 2A, the touch information includes a spatial path across the screen (step 304). (The spatial path is generally reported as a series of touch positions.)

The mention of trace 204a in FIG. 2A makes this a great point to explain what can be meant by “touch”. Trace 204a may be considered as a touch extending through space and time. Alternatively, trace 204a may be regarded as a long series of touches followed immediately one by one, with each touch associated with a particular point on touch sensitive screen 102 and with one particular viewpoint. Distinguishing may be important in this description when the user has started pressing at one pressure value and then changes to a different pressure value without releasing the pressure completely. Some user interfaces regard this as a single touch whose pressure changes over time, while others consider a constant pressure to be at least two temporally adjacent touches each having a value. Different definitions of dividing a user's gesture into one or more "touches" may be important in understanding what signals the user is transmitting, but the present invention works with any such definition.

In step 306, a pressure value is associated with the received touch information. There are many ways to achieve this, and the differences between them are typically based on different techniques that can be used to implement the touch sensitive screen 102.

Step 306a covers examples where the screen 102 itself reports the pressure value. When the touch covers two or more points on the screen 102, some screens 102 report the pressure value of each point in the touch. The other screens 102 may only provide a total or average pressure value for the touch. The trace, such as 204a of FIG. 2A, may include a long list of individual pressure values, one for each point along the trace.

Step 306a also covers examples in which a component (eg, a pressure sensor) associated with the touch sensitive screen 102 reports a pressure value. In a very simple example, the entire screen 102 may be placed on a piezoelectric pressure sensor. When the screen 102 is touched, the pressure sensor reports the total amount of applied pressure. This very simple system, of course, fails to report the pressure exerted on each point of the spatially extending touch. In another example, the “smart” stylus measures the pressure applied by the user and reports the information to the personal electronic device 100. In general, the stylus reports only the total pressure.

Step 306b covers examples where the pressure associated with the touch is not reported directly but sufficient information is provided for the pressure to be calculated. Some touch sensitive screens 102 report the number of "points" contained within a touch. This is the area of the screen 102 that has received enough pressure to register a touch. For these screens 102, the weak touch 200a of FIG. 2A and the strong touch 200b of FIG. 2B are distinguished by the fact that the area affected by the strong touch 200b is larger. In some screens 102, the area is reported as the number of channels (or points) affected by the touch. Some screens 102 report a stronger signal that is proportional to the pressure of the touch in some manner. If the screen 102 reports both the area of the touch (or the number of channels affected) and the signal proportional to the total pressure, the average pressure can be calculated by comparing these two values. Thus, from a strong touch where a very weak touch over a large area of the screen 102 is concentrated in a small area, the overall pressure received by the entire screen 102 can be distinguished, although it may be the same in these two examples.

In many techniques, it should be noted that the reported pressure is relative rather than the actual value of Newtons per square meter. The present invention works perfectly well with actual or relative pressure measurements. In fact, the pressure value associated with the touch in step 306 may be selected from the groups "above threshold" and "below threshold". Of course, the touch sensitive screen 102 may also report a pressure value of zero (“not touch at that moment”) if necessary, but in that case the method of FIGS. 3A and 3B will not be called.

In step 308, the pressure associated with the touch is compared with a nonzero threshold. (The present invention distinguishes weak touches from strong touches, so the threshold is not zero, and a threshold of zero will only distinguish touch from non-touch.) The actual threshold handles the touch (in steps 310 and 312 of FIG. 3B). Note that this can vary depending on the application you are doing. However, the use of a consistent threshold is encouraged to enable users to gain a "sense" of how much pressure they must apply to cross the threshold.

The simplest embodiment of the user interface includes only steps 310 and 312 of FIG. 3B. In short, if the pressure is below the threshold, one action is performed (step 310), otherwise a different action is performed (step 312). User interface actions may include, for example, selecting an icon displayed on the touch sensitive screen 102, opening a file associated with the icon displayed on the screen 102, executing a program associated with the icon displayed on the screen 102, and controlling it. It may include changing the value of a parameter. As a specific example, if the drawing application is currently responding to a touch, the drawing application may respond to a touch below the threshold by drawing on the screen 102, while a stronger touch may delete the already drawn one.

As another example, the touch can be sent to a media playback application. A weak touch on the fast forward icon will quickly sense through the media presentation at a first speed, while a strong touch will fast forward through the presentation at a faster speed. If the pressure associated with the touch in step 306 of FIG. 3A provides more information than simply “above the threshold” or “below the threshold,” these two speed suck detection controls may determine their response between the associated pressure and the threshold in step 312a. It can be refined by making it proportional to the difference. That is, instead of just switching between two speeds, the speed can continue to increase as the user presses harder and harder. Of course, this type of pressure sensitive control can be easily combined with known techniques for increasing speed when the user keeps the control pressed. This example begins to demonstrate the real advantages of the present invention when user interface designers are offered the possibility beyond those traditionally associated with touch sensitive screens.

Some embodiments may simply include at least one or more nonzero thresholds (step 312b) rather than linearly increasing the response with increasing pressure. This would change the two speed fast forward control in the example above to three speed control and so on.

In any embodiment, the user interface designer may decide to implement step 312c to provide the user with a notification that his pressure has crossed the threshold. For example, an icon indicating that the pressure is above a threshold may be displayed on the touch-sensitive screen, a sound may be played, or perhaps most effectively, mimics the feedback encountered when a physical button is pressed harder and harder against its spring. A haptic response can be provided. Different user interfaces will probably implement different notifications.

Note that in the example given above, there is no deductive logic relationship between the application pressure and the selected user interface action. To illustrate this point by the opposite example, in a drawing application, the user's touch is graphically represented on the touch sensitive screen 102, ie, when the user creates a trace, such as trace 204a of FIG. 2A. A line is displayed on 102. Since the physical brush paints a wider line when pressed harder, it would be logical for the drawing application to display the wider line when the pressure is high, as in trace 204b of FIG. 2B. Thus, in this example, there is a deductive logical relationship between the application pressure and the width of the trace displayed on the screen 102 in the user's mind. However, as the previous examples indicate, the present invention is not limited to these deductive logic implementations.

The above description is very general and is intended to cover many possible embodiments. As a specific example, consider the method shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B. The method begins with step 400 of FIG. 4A. This step 400 emphasizes that the actual touch can extend through time and space (on the touch sensitive display screen 102). In this case, screen 102 sends periodic messages (or is periodically queried by processor 106) and the result is a string of position values and associated pressures. That is, step 400 introduces a processing loop that continues (through step 408) as long as the touch continues. In general, the touch is considered complete and the loop proceeds to step 410 when the pressure value reported from the screen 102 drops to zero.

As information about the touch is received, processor 106 begins at step 402 and evaluates the information. Here, the pressure value is associated with the touch of the present moment. The above description of step 306 of FIG. 3A applies here as well. The current pressure value is compared with the pressure threshold at step 404.

The processor 106 keeps track of the distance covered by the touch. In general, processor 106 calculates this distance from periodic touch location reports. In step 406, the total distance currently associated with the touch is compared with the distance threshold. If the distance threshold is exceeded, and if this touch has not yet been classified as "strong pressed" (see step 408), this touch is classified as "swipe".

Similarly, at step 408 the current pressure is compared to the pressure threshold (as in step 308 of FIG. 3A described above). If the pressure threshold is exceeded and this touch has not yet been classified as a "swipe" (see step 406), this touch is classified as "strong pressed".

The processing loop (steps 400 through 408) continues for the duration of the touch. When the touch is complete, if the touch is not otherwise classified, the touch is classified as a "tap" at step 410.

The result of steps 406 through 410 is that all touches are classified as exactly one of "strong press", "swipe" and "tap". Of the "strong press" and "swipe", the first triggered (by exceeding the appropriate threshold) wins the other. For example, if a touch is classified as "strong pressed", the touch may not be "swipe". If no threshold is exceeded, the default classification is "tap". Clearly, other implementation choices using these three classifications are possible.

Finally, in step 412 of FIG. 4B, the user interface action is triggered by the touch, and the specific action is based on the classification of the touch. Note that in many examples, the action of step 412 need not wait for the touch to complete. If a touch is classified as, for example, "strong pressed," the touch may not be reclassified as "swipe" or "tap", so that the user interface may take appropriate action even before the touch is completed.

As an example of this, consider trace 204b of FIG. 2B. It is assumed that the user starts the trace 204b by pressing hard enough to exceed the pressure threshold. This trace 204b is then classified as " strong presses " (step 408 of FIG. 4A). In one embodiment, the triggered user action (step 412 of FIG. 4B) is “drag and drop”. The screen icon located at the beginning of the trace 204b is " grabbed " as soon as this trace is classified (step 408) and moved along the path of the trace 204b and when the trace 204b ends. Is stopped.

5 provides a refinement that can be used with the previous examples. All such previous examples monitor the touch pressure, and the method of FIG. 5 also monitors the rate of change of the pressure value. The method begins at step 500, where "data points" are received from the touch sensitive screen 102. (The data points do not deviate from the previous methods, they are merely another way of describing the relationship between the screen 102 and the user interface.) As with the extended touch of FIGS. 4A and 4B, the method of FIG. It starts from a loop that continues for the duration of. In step 500, the screen 102 reports the touch position periodically.

In step 502, pressure values are associated with at least some of the data points. This step is similar to step 306 of FIG. 3A and step 402 of FIG. 4A.

Step 504 is a new step of the method. The rate of change of pressure is associated with the set of received data points. In general, processor 106 calculates the rate of change by mapping the associated pressures of step 502 with timestamps of data points (from step 500). The rate of change is then used as input to the user interface at step 506. As just one example, certain user interface actions can be triggered only if the user increases the pressure of the touch very quickly.

Optional step 508 notifies the user of the rate of change of pressure. This is similar to notifying the user that the pressure has exceeded the threshold (step 312c in FIG. 3B), but frankly, the notification to indicate the rate of change is less valuable than the notification to indicate the transition between weak and strong pressure. I think.

The last specific example is sufficient to complete this description. 6 provides a user interface method configured based on the foregoing capabilities. This method analyzes the extended touch as some of the methods described above. The processing loop begins at step 600 where data points are received from the touch sensitive screen 102. In step 602 pressure values are associated with the data points. These two steps are similar to steps 300 and 306 of FIG. 3A, steps 400 and 402 of FIG. 4A, and steps 500 and 502 of FIG. 5.

Then, in step 604, the data point information is compared with the stored gesture profile. For example, the pressure and location of each data point (or more possibly representative data points) are compared with similar data points in the stored gesture profile.

The stored gesture profile can be created, for example, by the user signing his or her name multiple times on the touch sensitive screen 102. A profile is created that characterizes its signature using both positional and pressure information. In one embodiment, signatures are compared and only the most stable portions are represented in the profile. The profile may contain very specific threshold information that accurately indicates how much the location and pressure information changes when the user signs his name. The techniques of FIG. 5 can also be applied to stored gesture profiles by storing the rate of change of pressure along with position and pressure value information.

In step 606, if each of the comparisons is within a threshold (or if a predefined ratio of comparisons is within the threshold), the set of received data points is considered as a match of the stored gesture profile. Continuing the example of signing, the user may be prompted to sign his name. His signature is a touch received and analyzed via steps 600-606. If his current signature matches a stored gesture profile, he may be authenticated and provided access to control information. Thus, the method of FIG. 6 is much more subtle than standard text input mechanisms and provides a much better level of password security than standard signature based (ie pure location based) security mechanisms.

The method of FIG. 6 may be used to recognize and verify any gestures made by a user. This method can improve the reliability of the handwriting recognition program, for example.

The examples given above illustrate that the actual actions performed are selected by the designer of the user interface, and the pressure value is simply a signal sent by the user of the personal electronic device 100 to the user interface.

In view of the many possible embodiments to which the principles of the invention may be applied, the embodiments described herein in connection with the drawings are intended to be illustrative only and should not be considered as limiting the scope of the invention. For example, very different uses of the present invention are contemplated for different user interfaces and in different situations. Accordingly, the present invention as described herein contemplates all such embodiments as may fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.

Claims (9)

In the personal electronic device 100 having a touch sensitive screen 102, a method for responding to a user input,
Receiving (500) a plurality of data points from the touch sensitive screen (102), each data point comprising location information;
For each of the received plurality of data points, associating (502) pressure with the data points;
Associating (504) at least one pressure change rate with at least a subset of the data points; And
Performing 506 a user interface action based at least in part on the associated pressure change rate information
≪ / RTI > The method of claim 1,
For each of the plurality of data points, further associating time with the data points,
Associating at least one rate of change of pressure comprises comparing pressures and times associated with the plurality of data points. The method of claim 1,
Associating at least one rate of change of pressure comprises receiving a rate of change value from the touch sensitive screen. The method of claim 1,
The user interface action may include selecting an icon displayed on the screen, opening a file associated with an icon displayed on the screen, executing a program associated with an icon displayed on the screen, changing a value of a control parameter, opening a context menu, And picking up an icon displayed on the screen. A personal electronic device (100) comprising:
Touch sensitive screen 102; And
Processor 106 operatively connected to the touch sensitive screen 102
Lt; / RTI >
The processor
Receive (500) a plurality of data points from the touch sensitive screen (102), each data point including location information;
For each of the received plurality of data points, associating a pressure with the data point (502);
Associating (504) at least one pressure change rate with at least a subset of said data points;
And perform (506) a user interface action based at least in part on the associated pressure change rate information. In the personal electronic device 100 having a touch sensitive screen 102, a method for responding to a user input,
Receiving (600) a plurality of data points from the touch sensitive screen (102), each data point comprising location information;
For each of the received plurality of data points, associating a pressure with the data point (602);
For the plurality of data points having an associated pressure, comparing the location information and the associated pressure with a stored gesture profile (604); And
If the compared data points are within a threshold of the stored gesture profile, performing a user interface action based at least in part on the compared data points (606)
≪ / RTI > The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the threshold comprises a position threshold and a pressure threshold. The method according to claim 6,
The user interface action may include selecting an icon displayed on the screen, opening a file associated with an icon displayed on the screen, executing a program associated with an icon displayed on the screen, changing a value of a control parameter, opening a context menu, And picking up an icon displayed on the screen. A personal electronic device (100) comprising:
Touch sensitive screen 102; And
Processor 106 functionally connected to the touch sensitive screen 102
Lt; / RTI >
The processor
Receive (600) a plurality of data points from the touch sensitive screen (102), each data point including location information;
For each of the received plurality of data points, associating a pressure with the data point (602);
For the plurality of data points having an associated pressure, compare the location information and the associated pressure with a stored gesture profile (604); And
And if the compared data points are within a threshold of the stored gesture profile, perform (606) a user interface action based at least in part on the compared data points.

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